Building a Community of Faculty for Teacher Preparation in Earth and Space Science Education

Surveys and focus groups suggest that faculty who help prepare future teachers in science can benefit from professional development. A team of scientists and science educators has delivered three such 2-day faculty institutes, through our Faculty Institutes for NASA Earth and Space Science Education (FINESSE). Faculty have developed a mechanism for working inquiry into a deeper understanding of science by using existing online data to develop and research Earth and space science topics. Members of the FINESSE team share experiences regarding the institutes, describe their findings thus far, and demonstrate some of the interactive pieces of the institute.